


To Hell and Back

by TheEarlyKat



Category: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!
Genre: Aggressively Fills in Plot Holes, F/M, Fix It Fic, Making the Timeline Work, Named Original Characters, Original Character(s), Self-Indulgent, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:40:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27200567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEarlyKat/pseuds/TheEarlyKat
Summary: One year. Two students. Three realms. Math doesn't come easily to Early, but she doesn't need to count higher than four to realize that some things aren't adding up in R.A.D.'s newest exchange program with her friend, Ami. Spend the year with both of them as they experience the ups and downs of the life at the House of Lamentation.
Relationships: Beelzebub (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)/Original Female Character(s), Mammon (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 5





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr, I wanted to put this story all in place so it'd be easier to find. This is a fix it fic that will hopefully put the timeline in an order that makes sense, expand on certain topics, explain even more, and smooth out if not fill in the many many plot holes of the game. This is purely self-indulgent, self-shipping writing that I wanted to do, so enjoy it along with me if you want!

“Perhaps if we were to invite Solomon…” Lucifer muttered under his breath. His grumblings were furhter muted beneath the gloved hand across his face, fingers digging into his eyes to rub away the ache behind them. Diavolo was still quick to pick up on the complaint and Lucifer tensed at the laugh that followed.

“It wouldn’t be much of an exchange program if we ask someone we’re already familiar with, now would it?”

Lucifer sighed and added another document to the growing pile of read applications. There were still double the number to go through. He stared at the stack, eyes hard, before taking the next one off the top. He didn’t make it past the first few lines before he moved it to the read pile.

“Think of it as an experiment, Lord Diavolo. You need to have consistent results for this to work.”

“Of course,” the demon lord hummed. He leaned forward in his chair, elbows on his knees to prop his chin in his folded hands as he watched Lucifer sort through the next few pages at his desk.

“Which would imply that we need to repeat your…” Lucifer paused to choose his words carefully, “plans as closely as possible. Especially so if we’re to guarantee the safety of the humans involved.”

Diavolo nodded, but Lucifer couldn’t find any agreement in the empty smile on his face. “I see what you mean, and it’s certainly reassuring to see you so dedicated to the task. But if we are, as you said, to ensure the safety of the participants, don’t we also have to widen our factors? We’ve proven a powerful sorcerer like Solomon can survive in the Devildom quite solidly, I think. But what about humans without such advantages?”

“You… are correct,” Lucifer admitted with another sign. “So I can remove any applicants who’ve proven to have some magical talent? Is that the plan for this year’s program?”

“I had thought it might be fine to include anyone with low level power, but you might be on to something, Lucifer. It’s true that I want to prove we can house humans of any talent safely here. To do that we have to find the weakest of them. Go ahead and do so.”

Lucifer nodded, and, after a quiet moment, a smaller stack of papers sat neatly aside the rejected applications. Those still to be read still towered above the rest. Lucifer made another pass of his hand across his face. “You don’t make this easy, Lord Diavolo.”

“But I know you’re up to the task. Although, I have one idea if you don’t mind.”

Lucifer sat back and gestured to the piles. In a flash, all his work to arrange them neatly and alphabetically was wasted as Diavolo grabbed the stack from the bottom and yanked them to the floor. Lucifer rose to his feet, the weight of unseen wings heavy on his back and a headache nothing compared to the pressure of his horns moments from bursting forth, to stare, wide eyed, at the mess. He gripped the edge of the desk hard, knuckles white, in an effort to keep himself under control as the last fluttered pages floated to the ground.

“Why would you-”

“Let’s have fate decide,” Diavolo said. He walked through the strewn applications and bent to pick up one amongst all the others. “I thought this way would be faster. Here.”

The pressure subsided, but the headache increased tenfold, as Lucifer took the offered document and fell back into his chair. He took the next one offered, as well. “Is this really the best way to go about it?”

Diavolo smiled, and this time Lucifer thought he caught just a hint of real humor in his eyes. “Unless you’d like to clean up and read them over again, I would say yes.”

Lucifer pursed his lips and laid both applications on the desk. At least two powerless humans would be easier to contact than one mysterious sorcerer. “I’ll have Mammon send his crows to find them in the morning.”

“Fantastic. I expect to hear from you soon about your findings.”

Lucifer saw him off with a dip of his head before dropping it fully into his hands with a groan. He peeked out from between his fingers at the names. One Early and one Ami, both powerless, clueless, and very fragile humans. He almost felt sorry for them. But only almost. There was further work to be done to set up if the exchange program Lord Diavolo had devised was to be up and running by the start of the new R.A.D. school year. Of course these two had lives of their own, ones about to be very interrupted. Their own schools and places of work had to be informed, close friends and family contacted, documents signed and sent to make it official. At least, that part, had already been started by Diavolo. Lucifer only had to add the finial details to them before sending them out.

If only the year to come went as easily as it sounded.


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why I never updated this. There's already a couple chapters written - I guess I've just been lazy. I'm working on more!

“There’s a lot of birds around today,” my coworker said as I met her outside of the office trailer. I stepped carefully around the puddles from the early morning rains to join her and only briefly lifted my gaze off the ground. Despite the quiet of the sunrise, there was a lot of activity in the air. The usual terns were darting low to the ground to catch the insects still buzzing around and the wispy cloud trail of one or two planes decorated the sky, but there a dozen or so dark shapes hopping from roof to roof in the mix.

“Crows,” I thought aloud. “I don’t remembering seeing so many here before.”

“Maybe there’s just finally enough garbage on the ground,” she sighed, kicking at a flattened soda can on our way inside.

“I probably don’t help,” I laughed, a little embarrassed, and pulled out a can of cat food from my pocket. “Now I’m wondering if the kittens are even eating it or if I’m just feeding the birds.”

“No one’s still bothered to trap the little guys living under the trailer?”

I shook my head and moved around her as she opened the door for me. “I don’t even know how many times I’ve said that a half completed building is no place for cats but no one else has bothered to help,” I said with a grimace. I peeked out the window to guess at the coming weather and pulled my rain jacket out of locker. “I can only hope that I can get them into the traps I found if I leave enough food, especially since I’ve only seen two -”

I paused as I turned back around to find someone else in the trailer with us. My manager stared at me, one eyebrow raised and his lips pressed into a thin line. Confusion, still hard to miss despite the shadow of his sports cap, was plain on his face. It was a look I’d seen only once before, and it hadn’t been a great experience for either of us.

“What are-”

“I know I have the schedule right,” I said, cutting him off before he could say I was wrong. I tapped the spreadsheet tacked to the wall besides me for good measure. “It has my name on here and everything.”

“No one emailed you?”

“Of course no one emailed me,” I muttered with a frown and pulled my phone out with one hand, gesturing for my coworker to head out and clock in without me with the other. I tapped through my apps to my email and furrowed my brows. I had nothing new aside from a couple spam messages and a coupon ad. “No, I didn’t get anything from anyone. Again.” I sighed and crossed my arms. “So what happens now?”

My manager finished typing a message to whoever was most likely responsible for the miscommunication and frowned, finger held above his phone. A silent series of seconds passed before an alert sounded. His frown deepened. “It looks like you’ll be going home. The vacation time has already been processed and until we can get it sorted it out you’ll just have to enjoy your time off.”

My eyes widened. “Vacation? I don’t remember submitting any vacation time.”

He lifted a shoulder. “All I know is we received word from an education program that you’d been accepted and would be leaving immediately. The paperwork was already signed and finalized with a plan for when you’d leave and when you’d return. We were just wondering why you hadn’t told us about it.”

“Because I didn’t sign up for any vacation,” I sputtered. “Or education program! I know I’ve sad before that I wasn’t going to do any more college work. I…” I trailed off, unsure of what else to say. Maybe I had missed an email at some point. Maybe I had clicked on something I shouldn’t have in the middle of a sleepless night. Or maybe my accounts had been hacked? Something that made sense had to have happened. I ran a hand through my hair and hung my rain jacket back up. “I’ll go home, but I’m getting this sorted as soon as I can.”

“Good. We wouldn’t have known what to do without you for a whole year.”

A sarcastic remark was on the way up my throat until panic trapped it, keeping me silent. A year? A whole year? What kind of educational program kept you away from your life for a whole twelve months? It had to have been a scam, some kind of really bad but really impressive scam. I ran through a list of accounts I’d have to change as I headed back to my car, feet splashing through the puddles I’d only recently been intent on avoiding. Wet socks didn’t seem so important in the wake of impending identity theft. Or, possibly, worse. I groaned. It was a long drive back to my place, with a lot of time I could spend overthinking the whole situation. What if this was just one whole misunderstanding and I wasn’t even the recipient of this program? The administrators must have gotten the email wrong and it was sent to me. There was bound to be other people with my name, after all.

The thought calmed me for just a moment, and when I spotted my car, covered in crows, I had a bad feeling that any explanation for what was happening wouldn’t be as simple as that.

“Shoo, shoo,” I shouted, waving my hands about to chase them off. One or two flapped to a nearby light pole. I clicked the lock on my car and spooked another few off with the sound. The last of them left when I started my car up and pulled out of the parking lot back to the main road.

It was a long drive back to my place which left a lot of time for overthinking, something I was terribly good at. I turned the radio up to stave off the worst of my thoughts and winced at the static that came through. I turned it off, instead. My thoughts at least didn’t make my ears want to bleed, but the unending circles still made me want to go just as crazy. What could possibly have happened? I couldn’t have missed something as big as a year long… whatever it was. Vacation. Educational program. It could call itself whatever it wanted. It was still a pain in my butt, and one I was intent on getting rid of as soon as possible.

The creeping paranoia was giving me a headache and I was more than relieved to finally pull up next to my place. The morning so far had only been a long trip back and forth from work, but the whole ordeal of it had made me more tired than I thought as I shuffled up the path to my door. Maybe I’d make a real breakfast before sorting everything out. I grit my teeth as my headache flared behind my eyes. Maybe a nap first.

A long nap, I thought, as my vision swam, and I dropped my keys on the attempt to unlock the door. I closed my eyes to steady myself before picking them up and blinked, confused, at the ground. I touched it just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things and pulled back with a gasp when my fingers brushed against thick carpet instead of rough concrete.

“What the….” I started, my voice faltering as I straightened.

This wasn’t my house. This wasn’t my street.

I took a step back, legs shaking, away from the raised dais in front of me.

Those weren’t anyone I knew, either, sitting in the chairs behind the long table atop it.

“I wouldn’t think about running,” one of them said, and I didn’t think I could if I tried. Not when my legs wouldn’t work. My mouth wouldn’t work, either, and it was only by some miracle that my bowels continued their attempt to stay normal despite the nausea and panic twisting my guts into knots.

“What the fuck?” Someone voiced my thoughts for me. Someone that I did know.

“Welcome to the Devildom,” the one in the middle said, rising from his chair, all black hair and dark eyes. He was intimidating and I was, very much, intimitaed.

“You’ve got to be shitting me.”

I wanted to laugh, and instead could only silently whip my head to stare at the other person standing in the middle of the room with me. Right on the mark, again, Ami.


End file.
